Writing on perfume so fine and evocative I could smell the accords in imagination!

Aftel’s book is a delight, to all who might be interested in perfumery, the mysteries of olfaction, and, particularly how psyche and aroma connect. Her book is far from a leaf through, light on substance pretty picture coffee table book. Instead, dense and engagingly written text, lightened and deepened by beautiful line drawings – which are actually so much more satisfying (for this reader) than the usual photographer and bottles of perfume artfully arranged number.

There is something enormously pleasing about the original slow work involved in making, for example, botanical line drawings, woodcuts and the like, which are then here reproduced.

Aftel is a fascinating writer, too. Originally a psychotherapist she brings that listening delight to teasing out the useful story of ‘the other’ the uncovering of hidden meaning, to the way she sees her present vocation – perfumer. And, her interest is in natural perfumes, rather than those of novel synthesised chemistry created in a lab.

Those of us who are pulled, for many reasons, by perfume using plants, know that this is slow, reflective perfumery. At its best we are drawn into a realisation of the complexity of growing the plants, of extractions to yield their aromatics, of a weight of history behind them

And Aftel brings all this along with her in her book, connecting ‘’Per fumem” to its original, sacred roots, and the making of perfume from extracting essential oils from plants to an original pairing with alchemy.

C. Gesner, The newe jewell of health

Along the way as well as philosophical, psychological and historical reflections, there is much practical information for the budding kitchen perfumer, including methods, aromatic suggestions, information about what will harmoniously marry with what, and what might connect with interesting, piquant oppositions.

This is a book to enjoyably read and re-read – not to mention, embark on given formulations and sail out on one’s own to assay others.

Enfleurage, in times of yore

The book concludes with a list of potential suppliers, though as this was originally published in 2001 I note some of the listed suppliers have long disembarked from their perfumed barges and vanished into the wild blue yonder,

There is also an extensive bibliography and reference section, to take the eager reader onwards into further aromatic journeys, be these deeper into an exploration of alchemy, or neurobiology and olfaction, or, even weighty tomes exploring the history and design of perfume bottles!

This is very much a deep, broad, wide read on the subject, but beckoning the lured reader on the further exploration

8 thoughts on “Mandy Aftel – Essence and Alchemy”

Indeed. I’ve not bought commercial perfumes for decades because they smell of strange chemistry to me, rather than ‘real’ or harmonious. I have the same reaction to processed food. I think many people have become ‘sensitised’ to artificial isolates But I only do it for personal use, or face to face friends etc that I might make something for. Any kind of moving into commercial areas becomes a minefield set around with regulations which have come in force, due to (in my opinion) precisely the everywhere use of synthetic cocktails of fragrance products. This means that specific chemistry within a plant happily and safely used for thousands of years becomes ‘suspect’ – because the isolate has been shown to have sensitivity or other issues. And so even those only using botanicals commercially will find that they are not allowed to use a specific botanical above a certain percentage (often remarkably low) within a product because one or more of the naturally occurring chemical components within the several hundreds which make up the plant, is subject to regulations brought about by the use of its synthetic isolate in something or other. It’s all very sad Probably an answer far more charged and complex than you might idly have been expecting. Clearly, a big button push for me. I’m just increasingly aware of the numbers of people who seem to be suffering with some kind of toxic overload of ‘novel’ chemistry which the air is staggeringly full of with the advent of some kind of artificially fragranced everything – from aromas pumped out in shops to make us buy more (it works – even in shops selling nothing cosmetic at all!) to highly perfumed washing powders, conditioners, etc etc etc

You’ll get no argument from me, as someone who has more than once fainted in shops while walking through the perfume department (seriously) and who regularly ends up choking as people in public toilets spray all their artificially scented stuff lavishly around. The tragic thing is I never find it smells as nice as naturally scented stuff anyway. And I’ve had issues with skin sensitivity for years, mainly because of my thyroid admittedly, but not helped at all by highly perfumed washing powders etc.

It’s becoming more and more common. I don’t think I’m imagining this – I think I read that in the States there have been some groups trying to stop the ubiquitous use of artificial aromatics in public places, because there are a sizeable minority of people with adverse reactions to the. You can, after all, choose to avoid consuming stuff with ingredients which are problematic for you – but you can’t avoid breathing in what might be pumping around in the air con, of wafting past you by someone who is sprayed with a multiplicity of highly fragranced artificialness from top to toe. And wearing clothes doused in yet more olfactory overload stuff. Headaches induced by strong (artificial) aromas are quite common. Each individual constituent may be below a certain limit, but with novel chemistry and novel limitless combinations of them all, possible, the cumulative effects are ignored

It’s a wonderful book Madame Bibi. I’m eagerly awaiting a more recent, more coffee table book from her to arrive from the States, where I found a better price via marketplace. I don’t mind drooling over beautiful illustrations, but I do want a writer to have something interesting and unusual to say, and in a voice which engages me. Aftel is certainly one of those!